Japan’s first Moon lander has responded to a signal from Earth. This shows that it has survived the week-long second lunar night. Giving this information, Japan’s space agency JAXA called it a miracle. On January 20, Japan’s unmanned Smart Lander for Investigating (SLIM) made a soft landing on the Moon.

Japan’s first Moon lander has responded to a signal from Earth. This shows that it has survived the week-long second lunar night. Giving this information, Japan’s space agency JAXA called it a miracle. On January 20, Japan’s unmanned Smart Lander for Investigating (SLIM) made a soft landing on the Moon.

With this, Japan became the fifth country to reach the moon. JAXA said SLIM had fallen in the wrong direction last month and sunlight was unable to reach its solar panels. However, contact was made with SLIM on the eighth day after landing as soon as sunlight arrived.

JAXA said that as it was noon on the moon, SLIM’s temperature had reached almost 100 degrees Celsius. For this reason the contact on Sunday was very short. JAXA is preparing to contact SLIM again once it cools down. The agency said that SLIM was not designed for the cold nights of the Moon. Temperatures on the Moon drop to minus 170 degrees Celsius (minus 274 degrees Fahrenheit).